Through May 8, people must continue to self-quarantine for 14 days after arriving in Wyoming from out-of-state, Gov. Mark Gordon announced Wednesday. The directive applies to both visitors and Wyoming residents who leave the state, but not to people traveling for work-related purposes. It also includes a couple other exceptions, such as people traveling for medical appointments.

However, “we are still asking visitors to postpone vacation travel to Wyoming at this time,” Gordon said, “as we remain concerned about the travel of potentially infected individuals to our state.”

Even though some parts of Wyoming have seen few or no confirmed cases of COVID-19, Gordon indicated that visitors from other states could present an issue.

For instance, “there has been a tremendous amount of out-of-state pressure” on campgrounds at Wyoming’s state parks, Gordon said.

He said overnight camping at state parks this winter rivaled what they would normally see in the summer.

“The number of people that came to use our campgrounds in February was the same as what it would have been in any other June,” Gordon said. Cars and campers spotted at state parks hailed from North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Colorado, Utah, Nebraska and Montana.

Wyoming will open its state parks up to overnight camping on Friday, May 15, the governor said, but only to Wyoming residents and with some new procedures in place. More details will be announced today (Thursday).

In what he described as a side note, Gordon said the state has seen an uptick in out-of-state residents applying for Wyoming driver’s licenses.

“It is fairly interesting,” he said.

—By CJ Baker